Noor Mohammad Noor, the spokesman of the Independent Election Commission (IEC), on Sunday said that Illegal Armed Groups (IAGs), especially in remote areas, are causing trouble for preparations ahead of the spring elections.

IAGs have seen a growing share of the spotlight in recent months as residents from areas around the country have lobbed complaints and accusations against them for everything from extortion to kidnapping and murder. Marking a new breed of threat posed by the lawless groups, Mr. Noor reported that they have been trying to interfere with the opening of polling centres and the voter registration process in a number of rural districts around the country.

"Several IAGs are trying to create problems ahead of the elections. This is mostly happening in the villages. But the IEC is committed to holding the elections on time," said Mr. Noor.

Many Afghan experts and political figures have voiced concerns regarding the security precautions taken ahead of the elections. Some have been more pessimistic than others in their fears of the election calendar, with polls supposed to open on April 5, being thrown off due to security threats from insurgent groups. It would appear some IAGs now present a similar obstacle.

But Mr. Noor was less worried about the elections being delayed and more so about their disruptions opening the door to fraud in areas of the country under weaker oversight.

The IEC spokesman assured that the Commission would be taking the necessary measures – in coordination with security offices – to in thwart an attempts by the IAGs to obstruct or abuse the elections process.

Previously, the residents of several provinces have claimed that they were being terrorized by IAGs and demanded security officials take greater action against the groups. Balkh, Kapisa and Urzugan provinces have reportedly seen some of the worst IAG-related issues.

Meanwhile, IEC officials announced that the nomination filing process of the Presidential and Provincial Council candidates would officially begin on Monday, but with stricter regulations in comparison to past elections. The new regulations for candidate nominations are expected to consolidate the field so that there will be fewer candidates than in past years.

"Registration of the electoral candidates will officially start from Monday and is going to continue for 20 days. So far, 27 probable candidates have received information packets from us," Mr. Noor added.

On Friday, Zia-ul-Haq Amarkhail, the head of the IEC Secretariat, announced that certain voter registration services would be extended past the September 26 date marking the official ending of the registration process in order to better include remote communities that have been unable to fully participate in the process thus far. Voter registration opportunities for particular rural areas will provided for another 45 additional days. Some of these areas are those worst affected by IAG activities.

In addition to the opening of more registration centres and keeping existing centres open longer, part of the IEC's efforts to make the process more inclusive will be the deploying of a mobile registration team. The team is expected to be sent out on September 28 and visit some of the most remote communities in Afghanistan.

As low female turn-out still remains a serious concern for the Commission, the mobile registration team will give a special focus to encouraging and facilitating the registration of women. Part of the team's responsibilities will therefore be a voting rights and electoral process awareness campaign.

The IEC reports that around 1,216,500 individuals have been registered for the elections, out of which 347,900 are women.